Was Mick McCarthy’s exit bad news for Ipswich Town?

Just over five months on from Mick McCarthy’s Ipswich Town exit and the club find themselves winless and bottom of the Sky Bet Championship table.

The 59-year-old South Yorkshireman suddenly left the Suffolk club in April despite Ipswich Town having announcing that he would be departing Portman Road at the end of last season just a couple of weeks earlier.

The Tractor Boys appointed Shrewsbury Town boss Paul Hurst as his successor but he has endured a difficult start to life as Ipswich Town boss and the club find themselves bottom of the table after seven matches.

Despite many fans becoming sick of the performances under McCarthy, was the decision to let him go correct or will the club rue making that choice?

McCarthy walked through the doors at Portman Road in November 2012 with a CV which included promotions from the second tier with both Sunderland and Wolverhampton Wanderers. At previous club Wolves, he had recorded a 38.5% win rate over a near-six-year spell at Molineux while he won almost 43% of his matches in charge of Sunderland.

During his time at Ipswich Town, the club were never in danger of relegation, finishing 14th in McCarthy’s first season in charge followed by three top half of the table finishes, reaching the Play-Offs in 2014/2015. The Suffolk outfit’s worst finish under McCarthy was 16th position in 2016/2017 while last season they were 12th, albeit without their manager come the end of the campaign.

McCarthy won more games than he lost as Ipswich Town boss (105 wins and 96 defeats) but it was largely down to his side’s inconsistency and sometimes unattractive playing style which saw the fans turn on him. It should be noted that he often worked on a tight budget during his time with Town and it could be argued that he achieved respectable league positions given the better financial resources available at rival clubs.

A famous old club like Ipswich Town will always want success on the pitch and a return to the glory days but whether the decision to offload McCarthy was the right one or not remains to be seen.